Rogue Champions- Wolverine
Greetings! We’re going to begin our look at the X-Men added to Marvel Champions. I was a little late getting started on Mutant Genesis, so Wolverine was out by the time we began. That means we’re beginning with the cranky Canadian.
Hero Summary
Wolverine (Hero)
- X-Men.
- Attack: 2, Thwart: 2, Defense: 2. Hitpoints: 10, Handsize: 5
- Healing Factor – Response: After the player phase begins, heal 2 damage.
- Comments:
- Wolverine is a great all around hero. Two in every stat. That gives you a lot of options for deck building just based on that.
- Auto heals are an ability which fits Wolverine perfectly.
Logan (Alter-Ego)
- Mutant.
- Recover: 6. Health: 10. Hand Size: 6
- Snikt! – Setup: Search your deck and discard pile for the Wolverine’s Claws upgrade and put it into play.
- Comments:
- Not much going on here ability wise after set-up.
- Six recovery is very nice though. With a Down Time in play, Wolverine can recover almost an entire character’s heal in one action.
Wolverine’s Claws
- Cost: -. Resource: 1 Physical.
- Permanent
- Hero Action: Exhaust Wolverine’s Claws, choose an ATTACK event in your hand, and take damage equal to its printed cost ? play that event, ignoring its resource cost. That attack gains piercing.
- Comments:
- Play any attack event in exchange for dealing yourself damage. Combined with his auto-heal and his high recover this is a very reasonable cost.
- Piercing is an excellent touch as it makes Wolverine the anti-Tough hero as he’ll always be able to just ignore it.
Hero Deck
Ally
- Jubilee
- Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Wildcard.
- X-Men.
- Attack: 1*. Thwart: 1*. Health: 2
- Response: After Jubilee enters play, choose an enemy. Until the end of the phase, while Wolverine or Jubilee is making a basic attack against that enemy, they get +2 ATK for that attack.
- Comments:
- Jubilee is a nice cheap ally for Wolverine to play.
- Her ability perfectly fits Wolverine’s playstyle and her role as an ally you want to play frequently rather than keep in play.
- Paired with some ready abilities for Wolverine, she can really help you stack up the damage.
Upgrade
- “I Got Better” (1)
- Cost: 4. Resource: 1 Energy.
- Superpower.
- Interrupt: When you would be defeated by an enemy attack, instead set your hit point dial to 5, ready your identity, and discard this card.
- Comments:
- You can’t kill Wolverine. If you can get this out there you don’t have to worry about how much damage an attack might do.
- Compared to Cap’s Helmet, this one is significantly more expensive but does healing you to 5 health instead of 1 and you can play it again later.
- I have yet to play it but I’ve thought about it a few times. Play style with it out would be very different.
- Adamantium Skeleton (1)
- Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Physical.
- You get +4 hit points.
- Wolverine gets +1 ATK and his basic attacks gain piercing.
- Comments:
- Many heroes have upgrades that increase their health or their base stats. Wolverine gets both in one upgrade, plus piercing.
- This makes Wolverine the king of fighting tough. With his claws plus this, almost all of his attacks are going to have piercing.
- For many heroes, bonus health upgrades often are mostly just a short term heal, as they never get a chance to fully recover. With Wolverine’s autoheal and high recover, he is very likely to recover any bonus health he gets, and then burn it as a resource to play attack cards.
- Berserker Frenzy (1)
- Cost: 2. Resource 1 Mental.
- Hero Response: After Wolverine takes any amount of damage from an enemy attack, draw 1 card.
- Forced Response: After you flip to alter-ego form, discard this card.
- Comments:
- This is the opposite of Unflappable. Which makes it pair nicely if you’re playing protection. Bonus card if you block all damage or if you fail.
- This triggers anytime Wolverine takes damage from an attack, so if you can soak up a bunch of low damage attacks, he’ll draw a bunch of cards. This pairs nicely with Storm’s weather deck reducing enemy attacks by 1.
Supports
- Logan’s Cabin (1)
- Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Mental.
- Location.
- Alter-Ego Action: Exhaust Logan’s Cabin ? shuffle 1 Wolverine card from you discard pile into your deck.
- Comments:
- This isn’t an amazing part of your deck but it’s handy to have available when you flip down. Gives you two cards back into your deck every time you need to heal.
- It is cheap which means you might decide to play it rather than burning it for a resource.
Events
- Berserker Barrage (2)
- Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Physical.
- Attack.
- Hero Action (attack): Deal 4 damage to an enemy. If this attack defeats an enemy, you may take 2 damage ? repeat this ability.
- Comments:
- This is one of those cards you don’t necessarily want to pay for using your claws. That way you have more health available to trigger it multiple times.
- Pairs well with Warrior Skill.
- Lunging Strike (2)
- Cost: 3. Resource: 1 Physical.
- Hero Action (attack): Deal 8 damage to an enemy. If you exhausted Wolverine’s Claws to play this card, this attack gains overkill.
- Comments:
- Eight attack with Overkill and Piercing? Yes please.
- This exceeds the standard hero 8 for 3 damage cards thanks to the ability to pair with Claws and not have to pay any resources.
- Regenerative Healing (2)
- Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Energy.
- Superpower.
- Action: Choose:
- Heal 4 damage from your identity.
- Discard each stunned and confused status card from your identity.
- Comments:
- Four healing for 1 resource is great value.
- Having the option to clear stunned and confused is nice. But playing with Storm and letting her Stalwart weather effect do it is better.
- Slice and Dice (2)
- Cost: 3. Resource: 1 Energy.
- Attack.
- Hero Action: Make the following 2 attacks in order:
- Deal 3 damage to an enemy.
- Deal 3 damage to an enemy.
- Comment:
- Very much like Melee but the damage can be done to the same enemy.
- Nor can you used Honed Technique on it.
- Track by Scent (2)
- Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Mental.
- Superpower. Thwart.
- Hero Action (thwart): Remove 3 threat from a scheme. If this removes the last threat from that scheme, draw 2 cards.
- Comments:
- Wolverine’s main thwart option. Three for two isn’t bad.
- Getting to draw cards if you time it so you clear is handy. That this is an action, so can be done on other players’ turns helps that happen.
Nemesis Set
- Obligation: Past Demons
- Boost Icons: 2
- Give to the Logan player.
- You may flip to alter-ego form.
- Choose
- Exhaust Logan ? remove Past Demons from the game.
- You are stunned and confused. Discard this card.
- Comments:
- A old style standard Obligation.
- It is a little odd to see such a standard Obligation after many recent characters toy with the design. Especially considering how strong Wolverine is.
- Wolverine pairs very nicely with Storm because of this obligation. You can effectively ignore it Storm has her Stalwart weather effect active.
- Nemesis: Omega Red
- Brute. Elite.
- Attack: 2*. Scheme: 1. Health: 8.
- Boost Icons: 3
- Retaliate 1. Steady.
- Forced Interrupt: When Omega Red attacks you, deal 1 damage to each character you control.
- Comment:
- Two damage seems low at first glance but then you notice the ability. One damage to all of your characters. Now it is a lot scarier, especially backed by 8 health. Much harder to kill in one round.
- This damage isn’t part of the defense so you’re taking it unless you have some special damage canceling cards (ex: Energy Barrier).
- A little surprised Omega doesn’t have Toughness. Wolverine has ways of ignoring that but would make him real annoying for others.
- Leadership Ally heroes do not want to get dealt Omega Red.
- Side Scheme: The Carbonadium Synthesizer
- Threat 5
- Boost Icons: 3
- Acceleration Icon
- While The Carbonadium Synthesizer is in play, Omega Red cannot be defeated.
- Comments:
- Now we know why Omega Red doesn’t have Tough. He can’t die until you clear this side scheme.
- Note, he can still take damage. You could deal the 8 damage to him, even if you can’t clear this side scheme, so that he dies the moment you can.
- Wolverine could clear this himself through a Thwart and Track by Scent.
- Death Factor (2)
- Attachment
- Boost Icons: 2
- Attach to your identity.
- Forced Response: After your turn ends, take 1 damage.
- Alter-Ego Interrupt: When you make a basic recovery, discard this card instead of healing damage.
- Comments:
- This is more annoying than his Obligation.
- Auto damage every round, regardless of which form you’re in.
- Exhausting an alter-ego to get rid of it seems fairly standard. It is interesting that it is specifically interrupting a basic recover (but not forced) rather than just exhaust to remove. I can’t think of any actual mechanical implications of this though.
- Tentacle Strike (1)
- Treachery.
- Boost Icons: *.
- Boost: You are stunned. Take 1 damage (4 damage instead if you are already stunned).
- When Revealed: You are stunned. Take 1 damage (4 damage instead if you are already stunned).
- Comments:
- You are not avoiding this card’s effect since its the same if you draw it as a Boost or Encounter.
- You do not want Wolverine’s Shadows of the Past triggering while you are playing a villain that likes to stun a lot. Or you are a thwarting hero who decided to just ignore that stun you got for the rest of the game.
Sample Decks
Wolverine Get’s Back Up Again (Protection)
- Allies
- None
- Events
- 3x Counter Punch
- 2x Desperate Defense
- 3x Momentum Shift
- 3x What Doesn’t Kill Me
- Resources
- Energy
- Genius
- Strength
- Supports
- None
- Upgrades
- 1x Armored Vest
- 1x Endurance
- 1x Dauntless
- 1x Downtime
- 1x Electrostatic Armor
- 3x Indomitable
- 1x Ready to Rumble
- 1x Symbiote Suit
- 1x Unflappable
This deck is all about ensuring Wolverine is ready when you need him. He can defend and ready with Indomitable or Desperate Defense. He can Counter-Punch when he defends. Then on his turn, he can ready with What Doesn’t Kill Me. When he does need to recover, he has Ready to Rumble to be ready after recovering. He can get up to 5 base attack (if you are playing campaign and choose one of the aggression sets so you can take Combat Training or have a buddy) to deal damage with. His health can get as high as 27 with Symbiote Suit and Wolverine has a real shot at healing back up to that level, unlike most characters. With all of his ready’s he can make good use out of symbiote suit.
Wolverine Runs Berserk (Aggression)
- Allies
- Angel
- Colossus*
- Forge
- Sunfire
- Events
- 3x Clobber
- 3x Moment of Triumph
- Resources
- Energy
- Genius
- Strength
- Supports
- X-Jet
- Upgrades
- 2x Battle Fury
- 1x Combat Training
- 1x Down Time
- 1x Endurance
- 1x Fastball Special*
- 2x Fluid Motion
- 3x Follow Through
- 2x Marked
- 1x Martial Prowess
- 2x Warrior Skill
This deck leans into Wolverine throwing around damage but remaining healthy by way of Moment of Triumph and Follow Through. Whenever he can kill a minion, he can use those to heal. This is especially handy if he used his claws to pay for the card that did the killing. If draw multiple Moment of Triumphs, you can get a chain going with Berserker Barrage, killing and healing repeatedly. Clobber works especially well for Wolverine as another attack, as if you play it first using his claws, you get it back to use to pay for other cards in your deck.
Warrior Skill help you up the damage of your attacks as needed to get a kill. You’ll be playing lots of attack events so Fluid Motion will buff Wolverine’s attack up. You can gain extra uses out of that buff if he kills a minion and readies with Battle Fury.
This is a good list to include Fastball Special in as you can pump Wolverine’s damage up quite high. It’s better with Colossus Hero played by someone else but you could include the Ally to try and make it work.
- Allies
- Blindfold
- Marvel Girl
- Events
- 3x Brains Over Brawn
- 3x Great Responsibility
- 3x Making an Entrance
- 2x Turn the Tide
- Resources
- Energy
- Genius
- Strength
- Supports
- 1x Interrogation Room
- Upgrades
- 1x Downtime
- 1x Endurance
- 1x Heroic Intuition
- 3x Justice Served
- 3x Overwatch
- 1x Skilled Investigator
- 1x Symbiote Suit
This is probably the least iconic Wolverine deck you could build. He’s no investigator or careful planner. But he does try to do it all without fear so that kind of fits. The idea here is to chain a lot of things together. He already wants to try to clear the last threat from a scheme with Track by Scent. The rest of his deck leans harder into that. Perfect scenario, you play Making an Entrance to Thwart six off a scheme (2 base + 1 Heroic + 1 Symbiote +2 Making an Entrance). This clears the scheme, triggering the attached Overwatch to remove 6 from another scheme. Doing this basic thwart allows you to use your claws to play Brains Over Brawn to deal piercing damage to an enemy (its at least 4 damage but might be 6 since your thwart was 6 for that thwart). You cleared a scheme, so Making an Entrance heals you for 2, the same damage playing Brains Over Brawn did to yourself. You also get to Ready thanks to Justice Served, then draw a card from Skilled Investigator and then deal three damage to an enemy using Turn the Tide. If your attack killed a minion, you get to thwart one more with Interrogation Room. All told, you’re still Ready and have removed 13 threat and done 9 damage at the cost of four cards from hand and two temporary cards already in play.
The final piece of this puzzle is Great Responsibility. I’ve never used this card because most justice heroes aren’t the toughest. But Wolverine has ample opportunity to heal himself. He can afford to soak some damage to avoid threat being placed. He can use this to keep a scheme at a level that will allow him to clear what’s left with the cards in his hand.
Wolverine Shows Some Leadership
- Allies
- Angel
- Beast
- Colossus
- Forge
- Gentle
- Pixie
- Professor X
- Storm
- Events
- 3x “To Me My X-Men!”
- 3x Lead From the Front
- 3x Mass Attack
- Resources
- Energy
- Genius
- Strength
- Supports
- Triskelion
- Uncanny X-Men
- Utopia
- Upgrade
- 1x Clarity of Purpose
- 1x Endurance
- 1x Downtime
Wolverine isn’t especially suited toward Leadership, however, all X-Men make great Leadership decks. To Me My X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and Utopia make any hero a great Leadership hero. What works especially well for Wolverine here is the use of Clarity of Purpose and Mass Attack. He can afford to pay for Mass Attack using his claws, still allowing him resources to pay new allies. He can also afford the damage from Clarity of Purpose to generate a wildcard resource. If he can play Lead From the Front before Mass Attack, that’s 4 bonus damage, meaning you could get up to 15 damage out of it (2 Wolverine + 1 Adamantium + 3 Colossus + 3 Gentle + 2 other Ally + 3 Mass Attack).
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